


A Pale Imitation

by goth_on_ham



Category: Gotham (TV), Would You Rather (2012)
Genre: Angst, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 11:35:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11599821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goth_on_ham/pseuds/goth_on_ham
Summary: Ed didn't love Oswald. He did love Kristen. Isabella made sense. Julian didn't. He doesn't know why he's drawn to him, but he is. Unfortunately, he doesn't help him get over Oswald, he just makes things worse.





	A Pale Imitation

**Author's Note:**

> This was a request I got shamefully long ago that I have finally filled. Basically, they wanted something where Ed meets a blond Oswald, like Isabella. I decided to make it Julian from Would You Rather.

It was uncanny how much he looked like Oswald. But there were differences. Besides the most obvious one (hair colour), Julian was younger, and he didn’t have a limp. He was also inclined towards lighter shades in his clothing, and none of it was tailor-made. Whereas, ever since Oswald had acquired the means to, all of his suits had been.

Then, there was Julian’s smile.

Really, it was more of a sneer.

Ed preferred Oswald’s.

He wasn’t sure why he even went with Julian. He had understood Isabella. She was his second chance after Kristen. She was every bit as beautiful as Kristen had been, but she had actually _liked_  his riddles.

He hadn’t even loved Oswald.

Julian made no sense.

And he certainly didn’t like riddles.

The first time he’d posed him one, Julian had stared at him as if he’d started speaking a foreign language. Then he’d snorted and told him to quit yapping and join him in the bedroom. To his shame, he complied.

He couldn’t help it. Maybe he hadn’t  _loved_  Oswald, but he missed him. Before he had shot him, he had seen him as a friend and mentor. Afterwards was when it had gotten more complicated.

He began to yearn for his company so acutely he thought he’d be anything to him if only he had him back. He’d be his friend, his Chief of Staff, even his lover. The thought didn’t repel him as much as it had initially.

He even grew to like it.

Julian arrived in Gotham shortly after he’d reached that conclusion. His father was here on ‘business’, and that vague reason was all the information Ed was given. He pressed for more, he even pleaded to meet the man, but Julian wouldn’t yield. It drove Ed crazy. Or crazier.

He wouldn’t say that he was usually  _crazy_ , but he was aware that most sane men would have stopped taking pills the moment that they made them start seeing dead people.

Julian was real. He knew that because he could feel him.

He was tight around his cock and warm underneath his hands. He smelled good.  _Expensive._  His tongue was wet when it took him into his mouth. The edges of his teeth hurt a little when they scraped the sensitive skin, and Ed tugged on his hair.

“Careful,” he said, while gasping.

Julian didn’t stop, but he looked up at him mischievously, and continued. Thankfully, without the teeth.

They had met at a painfully dull fundraiser that Ed had been obliged to go to in Oswald’s place. One after another, people came up to him and frowned sympathetically, sometimes placing a hand on his arm, saying how  _sorry_  they were about Oswald. Every one of them said that they hoped he was found soon, but Ed could see that none of them believed he would be.

“So were you his bit on the side or what?”

The voice nearly gave him a heart attack, because it was Oswald’s voice. He spun around, spilling his drink, and saw Julian. He couldn’t speak.

_Ghosts aren’t real._

But Julian was wearing white, and for a moment he believed he was one.

“Excuse me?” He finally said, the words barely above a whisper, and trembling.

“The Mayor. People are saying you guys were _close_. You know?”

“Who is saying that?” He didn’t care. Not really. He didn’t even know why he’d asked that when he was sure he was the only one who could see him. He hadn’t touched him yet. He didn’t think he was real.

“Everyone.” Julian replied.

He picked up a drink for himself, and another for Ed, because he’d spilled his last one. Ed touched his hand when he passed it to him.

He was real.

–

“Should I be jealous?” Oswald asked him that night, sitting in his favourite chair and casually picking some seaweed off of his shoulder. “Or does this just mean that I was right all along?”

“Right about what?”

“That you love me.”

Ed pinched the bridge of his nose. He squeezed his eyes shut. Oswald continued, cheerful despite Ed’s obvious distress.

“It does, doesn’t it? I was right.”

“Quiet.”

“I was right.”

_“Quiet.”_

“You were wrong-”

“I said, be quiet!” He raised up suddenly in his chair and the force made it fall backwards onto the ground.

“What the hell?”

Julian. He’d helped himself to a drink from the kitchen.

Ed remembered his first date with Kristen. He’d gotten a bit too verbal with a figment of his psyche in front of her as well.

“Sorry. Talking to myself.” He smiled. Or tried to. He had no idea how successful he was.

Judging by Julian’s expression, not very. He didn’t look concerned, he looked somewhere between amused and dumbfounded.

“You mean, screaming at yourself.”

“I suppose.” He laughed unconvincingly. He could feel the sweat dripping down his forehead and his shirt was sticking to his back. He knew he was a state. Oswald had told him so. He had looked halfway decent at the start of the evening, but not anymore. He didn’t know how he’d managed to get Julian to come back to the mansion with him. Maybe he was the curious type too. Or maybe he’d simply been bored.

Julian walked towards him, and when he got close enough, he put a hand on the back of Ed’s head. He could hear Oswald chuckling in the background. Julian anchored him down for their first kiss.

–

What they had, Ed wasn’t sure what to call it exactly, lasted just over a week. Then, suddenly, it was over.

“I’m leaving Gotham tomorrow. Dad’s finished with his business here, so we’re going first thing in the morning.”

Ed didn’t know what he’d expected. Julian wasn’t sentimental, and neither was he, but the suddenness startled him all the same.

“You sound happy about that.” He commented, bringing the China teacup to his lips. It shook a little.

“Damn right. This city’s a shit hole.” Julian had orange juice. He didn’t like hot drinks. Not even hot chocolate. “I don’t know how you can stand it.”

“It has its charms.”

“Sure.”

“You meet some interesting characters.”

“You mean like my clone?”

Ed put the teacup back down into its saucer with a loud clack. He felt like all the air left him at once, and Julian laughing didn’t help calm him down.

“I thought I told you that I didn’t want to talk about Oswald.”

“Give me a break. It’s a joke.” He was unrepentant for upsetting him,  _again_ , and Ed would have liked to strangle him. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t kill someone who looked so very like Oswald. Even if part of him wanted to.

“It’s not funny.”

“It really is.”

Ed could picture it. Wrapping his hands around his throat. Squeezing. Julian wouldn’t find  _that_  so funny.

“Who was better in the sack, me or him?”

“Stop it.“

“Me right? I mean, how much could he even do with that fucked up leg?”

If only he knew what he’d done. He wouldn’t make fun of him then.

Ed had expected Julian to ask at some point, but he hadn’t. He didn’t seem to care what had happened to Oswald.

Julian drained his glass of the last of his orange juice. “You want to do it one last time before I go?”

Ed pressed his face into his hands. Julian snorted.

“Are you crying?” He asked after a moment.

Ed wasn’t crying. He was trying to collect himself together enough so he didn’t end up doing something stupid.

He’d stopped taking the pills while Julian was around, and he was sure that added to the instability of his mood. He had had enough of Oswald jeering at him for screwing his lookalike. He had secreted the pillbox away at the back of one of his desk drawers.

Besides, Julian made fun of him enough for the both of them.

“Hey. What the fuck?”

Julian was getting impatient.

Ed counted to ten slowly in his head, then backwards to one. When he finished Julian was standing up to leave. Ed advanced on him and grabbed his arm. For a moment, Julian looked scared.

“Don’t talk about him.” Ed ordered, and then he kissed him, hard and uncompromising. Julian moaned into his lips, then tried to pull away, but Ed wouldn’t let him.

He only stopped when he needed a breath.

“Fuck, I-”

“Bend over the table.” Ed knew he wouldn’t do as he was told by himself, so he did it for him. Pushed a hand into his back and shoved him downwards.

“Are you nuts? The cleaner will see!” Julian protested, but he grew quiet when Ed pulled down his pants.

Ed began to stroke himself, but he needed little encouragement to get hard enough to fuck.

“Everyone in this town is crazy.” Julian muttered, becoming more pliant when Ed’s hands rested on his ass cheeks, spreading them apart. Ed didn’t know if it was because he had accepted what was about to happen or because he wanted it this way. Whatever Julian’s reason, he was glad he wasn’t laughing at him anymore.

The sex was possessive, rough. Rougher than Oswald would probably have wanted from him. Oswald had wanted his love, Julian was just killing time.

He wasn’t another Isabella. He was a spoiled rich boy who bore a strange resemblance to a man he may or may not have had some form of attraction for.

Nothing more, nothing less.

He didn’t love Julian like he’d loved Isabella, and he didn’t love Oswald like he’d loved Kristen.

It was completely different.

He thrust hard and fast into him, making Julian howl. He’d be feeling him on the flight back home. Ed doubted they would ever see each other again, so he needed to give Julian something to remember him by.

Tomorrow, when he was gone, he would start taking the pills again.


End file.
